How They Met
by Kessie-Louise
Summary: In the view of Clairinda Bennett, read about the very first time she met a Care Bear. But not just any Care Bear, Oopsy Cub.
1. Chapter 1

If I were to tell you that my family's move was the first time I met a Care Bear, I would have been lying. If I were to tell you that the first reason why I met a Care Bear was because I thought the world was out to get me because my father was about to marry a lady I didn't like, and the move to a different district just so my father could be closer to that lady, that would be a lie too. I was really 5 when I became best friends with a Care Bear. It was a week after my birth mother died. I loved her until the end.

The house we lived in was a quaint little thing. The perfect definition of 'townhouse' is what my father would say about it. There was a sunflower field just to the right of our house. In the summer sunflowers would nearly blind you with their yellow-ness. It is in the summer, that our events take place. Why? Because the sunflowers are an important part of this story.

"Clairinda! Clairinda Bennett where are you?" my nanny Madame Gertrude shouted. I never really liked her. I wasn't really sure why, Amanda our housekeeper then and now, thought it was because Madame Gert was so rash with her choices. Amanda always took my side even if it was against my father's.

"There you are Clairinda." Madame Gert said upon looking in my room. I sat on the floor alone, just staring at my teddy bear Klutz in my arms. Some say that I had no idea what had happened after my mother died. But I was smarter then most kids, of course I knew what had happened. My name means 'bright' in Latin for a reason.

"Come here now child." Madame Gert said scooping me up. The lady was so old it groaned as she arched her back up with a healthy weight 5-year-old in her arms. "Old Madame Gert is going to take you to the sunflower fields. Maybe we can pick some sunflower seeds for a nice loaf of bread."

I didn't agree or disagree with what Madame Gert wanted me to do, the easiest word to describe the state I was in was depression. The old nanny sat me down at the edge of the sunflower feild and I just sat there. Madame Gert kept going on about how the sunflowers looked so lovely and she tried to get me to talk, but I looked straight ahead. But then I heard the sound of something thud to the ground and saw something green move behind several sunflower plants. Madame Gert heard the sound too and stopped talking.

"What in the world was that?" she asked.

"Can I go see?" I asked, looking at at my nanny. She looked back at me. Those where the first words spoken for two days, it would have been natural for her to look at me the way she was.

"Do not go to far. I'll shout for you every now and again but if you can't hear me anymore you have to come back. Understood?"

I nodded my head. I stood up and carefully walked into the field. My nanny watched me until I was out of sight but still in earshot. I used my ears to listen to the sounds of the field. My ears pricked up like a wolf's ears would when it heard something. I moved quicker and faster. I didn't stop until I ran into something green and furry. The impact made both of us fall down and when I looked to see what it was, I screamed. The creature looked at me and screamed back. But then we took a better look of each other.

"Who are you?" I asked with a tilt of my head.

"I'm Oopsy Cub. I'm a Care Bear. Who are you?"

"Clairinda Bennett. My housekeeper nicknames me Claire though. I like Claire better though."

The Care Bear creature named Oopsy laughed.


	2. Chapter 2

I had to show Oopsy to Madame Gert. She thought he was a freak and she fainted on the spot. I took no notice in this and I led Oopsy to my house. I showed him to Amanda and she greeted him like her long lost friend.

"Why are you visiting us today Oopsy?" Amanda asked as she made us chocolate milk.

"I had an oopsy off of the playground cloud." he said, rather sheepishly.

"Well I hope you are okay then. That would have been a long way down." Amanda marveled as she handed the cups of chocolate milk to us.

"It happens a lot. I'm used to it." Oopsy said. He took a drink of the chocolate milks and enjoyed it pretty well. "This is really good Mrs. Claire's mom."

I laughed at him.

"Amanda isn't my mom silly." I told him. I had never felt so happy. It was like the hole my mother took with her was replaced with Oopsy. Amanda would later say that she had never seen me so happy.

"Oh... she's just so nice and all. I thought that she was a mom..." Oopsy said.

"I'm not a mom yet sweetie." Amanda said with a loving smile. "But, if I could, if I would adopt a little child it would be you."

"Really?" Oopsy asked happily. I liked his smile and I always would.

Everyone heard a knock at the door and Amanda went to get it. She came back with a Care Bear Cousin.

"Braveheart!" Oopsy said happily, putting his chocolate milk on the counter and hopping down from the chair to hug the Cousin.

"There you are you silly cub." Braveheart said giving Oopsy a hug back. "I have to tell Noble Heart to block off the edge of the playground and the Forest of Feelings. That's the fifth time this week that you've done that."

Then something came across my smart little 5 year old brain.

"Oopsy, you are not going to leave are you?" I asked getting down from my chair and going over to him. I tugged his arm toward me. I didn't want him to go, I didn't. I wasn't going to let two things that I loved the most leave me all in one week.

"Amanda, tell Oopsy he doesn't have to leave." I said, turning to my housekeeper. She hung her head in grief.

"I'm sorry dear, there's nothing I can do. Oopsy is, and forever will be, a Care Bear. He needs other Care Bears like Braveheart to help him grow."

Oopsy and I looked at Braveheart with sad faces. Tears were ready to fall down my face.

"Braveheart, can Oopsy stay? Please?"

When Braveheart took a while to answer and had signs of regret, I knew what he would say. I cried heavily upon realizing what would happen to Oopsy and I ran to my room. I slamed the door so loud the whole house shook and I screamed, long and hard. Only two minutes later there was a small knock on my bedroom door. I ignored it, but the knocker came in any way. It was Oopsy.

He didn't say anything until he was next to me. He held my hand lightly and looked at me.

"I'll be back." he promised. "And we'll be together forever and no one can tell us what to do then."

"But what if it takes you forever to come back? What if I'm old and I don't want you anymore?" I asked him. Just looking at Oopsy made my tears reduce a bit.

"Only a few years. Then I'll be a full Care Bear with a Belly Badge and everything!"

"But what about me?"

"You will be Big Claire. Bestest friend to the Care Bears and super ultra powerful."

I giggled a little.

"Claire the Bear." I said.

"Claire Bear!" Oopsy remarked. We both laughed. The same nickname would have been used by my father's fiance and I would grow to hate it so much that I forgot it's true origin.

"Time to go." Braveheart announced from my window. He was in a cloud car ready to take Oopsy back to the Kingdom of Caring. I watched as Oopsy got into the cloud car and waved goodbye. I ran to the window as Braveheart drove away.

"Never forget me!" I called out to Oopsy, the same way Wendy had shouted to Peter Pan.

I didn't see Oopsy again for nearly eight years. A lot happened to me in eight years. I met a girl a school named Sari Wang and we became BFFLs. We argue and agree on so many things people think that we are really sisters, separated at birth. I found out that I was musically adept. My father decided to remarry to a lady named Kelly. Kelly is a widow too, and she had one daughter from her previous marriage. Her daughter was 18 when I was 13 and her name was Karen. My father moved to a different district so he be closer to his future wife and I hated him for it. The only good thing that came out of it was the Amanda came with us and that I met the Care Bears again.

Oopsy didn't see me again until I was taken into Care-a-lot. When he saw me, and recognized me he fell over in surprise. My face had thinned out, I had frown at lest two feet or more, I no longer had freckles, overall I had changed so much that compared to my younger self, I was very beautiful. My reaction to seeing Oopsy again wasn't much, simply because he didn't change much. He still didn't have a Tummy Symbol of his own but I loved him the way he was all the I made fun of him for not having one, but then we would draw our own on his wipe-board of a tummy.

However, our relationship grew more in the eight years about. We wanted to see each other with each passing day. None of us realized that that longing to see each other would make us fall in love with each other. Nor did we know it would make use best friends before we were face to face again. If we had kissed back when we were kids, it would have meant nothing. But if we kissed know, it would been the world melting and regenerating into something new.

Everyone knew of this chemistry that Oopsy and I shared. They watch and wait for something bigger then what we want to admit. They hid it, but they know it. Cheer, Funshine, Share, Grumpy, Tenderheart, they all know. But, it was one of those things that have just have to wait for. And that's what Oopsy and I learned together.


End file.
